Pros

Cons

Requires monthly subscription to integrate devices.
Does not support IFTTT recipes.
Some devices can be tricky to enroll.

Bottom Line

The second-gen Iris Smart Hub from Lowe's is easy to install and can control a wealth of home automation devices, but many features are tied to a monthly fee.

21 Oct 2016John R. Delaney

Perhaps the most highly visible home automation hub thanks to its placement in Lowe's stores around the country, the Iris Smart Hub ($59.99) is a reasonably priced device that controls numerous Iris-branded and third-party devices, including contact and motion sensors, thermostats, locks, and more. It contains circuitry to control Z-Wave and ZigBee smart home products, supports Amazon Alexa voice commands, and is relatively easy to install. However, it lacks the versatility of our Editors' Choice, the Wink Hub 2, and requires a subscription to unlock its full potential.

Design and Features Measuring 1.3 by 4.2 by 5.5 inches (HWD), the Iris Smart Hub is considerably smaller than the Wink Hub 2 (7.2 by 1.2 by 7.2 inches) and just a tad deeper than Samsung's SmartThings Hub (1.3 by 4.2 by 4.9 inches). It has a white finish, with an Ethernet port and two USB ports on the back, alongside a power jack and a reset button. Three LED indicators on the front glow solid green when everything is working normally and flash green when pairing. A flashing yellow light indicates the hub is working on battery power, and a flashing red light indicates no Internet connection. At the base is a battery compartment that holds four AA batteries (included), which serve as a battery backup should you lose power.

Whereas the Wink Hub 2 supports wireless protocols including Z-Wave, ZigBee, Lutron, Kidde, Bluetooth, and dual-band Wi-Fi, the Iris Hub only controls Z-Wave, ZigBee, single-band (2.4GHz) Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth wireless devices. That said, there are more than 100 Iris-certified and third-party devices available on the company's site, including door locks, garage door openers, thermostats, lighting, smoke/CO detectors, and various sensors. There's even have a smart pet door for your pooch.

The hub also responds to Alexa voice commands when paired with an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, or Tap. But in order to create Rules and Scenes that allow Iris components to work with each other, you have to subscribe to a $9.99 per month Premium Plan. Moreover, the hub doesn't support If This Then That (IFTTT) recipes, so if you want any event triggering at all, you have to pony up for the Premium Plan. Early next year Lowe's will roll out the Iris Professional Monitoring Service at a cost of $19.99 per month. In addition to 24/7 monitoring it will include the Premium Plan service and a 4G cellular backup service. According to a Lowe's spokesperson, it won't require long-term commitment and users can cancel at any time. For now, you can have the hub send push and email notifications as well as a robocall when a security alarm is triggered.

The Iris app (available for Android and iOS) is fairly easy to navigate, but it lacks the icon-based user interface that makes the Wink app so easy to use. It opens to a Dashboard page where you can view a history of events for each sensor, and a Favorites bar for frequently used devices. The Dashboard uses individual sections called Cards to group each component in categories including Lights & Switches, Security Alarm, Climate, Doors & Locks, Cameras, Home & Family, Lawn & Garden, and more. Each card displays a brief status for installed components in that category such as the current temperature, door opened or closed, and whether the system is armed or disarmed.

Tapping a card icon opens a page that displays each installed component and its current status. For example, if the contact sensor is open, a double circle is displayed; if it's closed, it appears as a single circle. Tap any device to display details such as last time opened, temperature, and battery level. Here you can also edit component names and settings. Tap the Security Alarm icon to arm to disarm the system. The On setting is ideal for when nobody is home as it arms all sensors, while the Partial setting only arms the contact sensors and leaves the motion sensors disarmed so you can move about the house without setting off an alarm. The Off setting completely disarms the system.

At the top right corner of the Dashboard is a plus icon that takes you to an Add page where you can add new devices, create Rules that connect and automate components, and compose Scenes that allow you to control several devices at once. For example, you can create a Rule to have the camera begin recording when a sensor is opened, and create a Goodnight scene that turns off lights, locks doors, and sets the thermostat to a night temperature. The Add page also contains Care Behavior settings that offer medicine reminders, alerts you when doors are left open, monitors home temperature, and sends a curfew alert when a loved one is not home by a certain time. On the upper left corner of the Dashboard is a triple bar icon that opens a page where you can edit Scenes and Rules, add users, update your account information, and return to the Dashboard page.

Installation and Performance Installing the Iris Smart Hub is relatively easy. Start by downloading app and creating an account using your email address and a password, then fill in the About You information (name, phone number, and optional picture). The phone number is the one that will be used if an alarm is triggered. The About Your Home page is where you enter your address, and the Pin Code page is where you create a four-digit access code. Next, answer three security questions that will be used in case you forget your pin code or need to call tech support. Finally, you are asked to enter credit card information to sign up for a free two-month Premium Plan trial, or you can just skip this step.

The app then walks you through the hub installation process. Tapping I Have A Hub takes you to a screen where you can view a video tutorial or follow the onscreen instructions that begin with installing the batteries and moves on to connecting the hub to your router using the included Ethernet cable and plugging in the power supply. Once powered up you're instructed to enter the Hub ID found on the bottom of the hub. It took three minutes for the app to find my hub. Enter a name for the hub and you're ready to begin adding devices. To add a device, tap the plus icon in the upper right corner and select Device to bring up a list of Iris and third-party devices. Simply select your device and follow the onscreen instructions for pairing.

For my testing I installed the Iris Automation Pack and the Iris Outdoor and Indoor Camera. I had some difficulty installing the first contact sensor as it never completed the pairing process but showed up in my Dashboard after restarting the app. The smart button also gave me some trouble but eventually showed up on the dashboard after several attempts. All other components paired immediately.

I created a Rule to have the smart plug turn on when the contact sensors were opened, and it worked like a charm. The smart plug also reacted instantly to my on and off commands while using the app, and followed my daily on and off schedules without issue. My camera rule to begin recording whenever a contact sensor was opened also worked perfectly.

Next, I created a Scene to have the system arm itself at 7:00 p.m. every night while turning on a lamp connected to the smart plug, and it executed the commands like clockwork. I was also able to instantly turn the smart plug on and off using Amazon Alexa voice commands. Whenever a contact sensor was opened with the system in armed mode I received a push notification, an email, and a robocall from an unidentified 866 number. Since many people (including myself) don't answer calls from unidentified callers, it would be nice if the folks at Lowe's identified themselves in caller ID when calling.

Comparions and Conclusions

If you don't own a ton of smart devices, or your needs are fairly basic, you might want to consider using an Amazon Echo or the forthcoming Google Home instead of a full-on hub. They each support voice commands to control products like Philips Hue lighting and the Nest Thermostat, in addition to supplying information like the latest news and sports scores. They don't support quite the same amount of different devices, however, and they don't give you as much control over what you can do with what's connected.

The second-gen Iris Smart Hub lets you control dozens of home automation and security devices such as door and windows sensors, thermostats, door locks, and garage door openers, from a single mobile app. Installing the hub is fairly easy and pairing devices is mostly quick and painless, although I did experience a few hiccups in testing. The hub performs as advertised, providing quick responses to mobile app and Alexa commands, and following Rules and Scenes without missing a beat. My biggest gripe with the system is having to pay a monthly fee to make components work with each other, a key feature that is free with other home automation hubs. Moreover, support for IFTTT would be welcome, as would support for additional popular wireless protocols.

If you want a hub that works with a wider range of products and services and doesn't charge any fees at all, check out our Editors' Choice, the Wink Hub 2. It costs a bit more than the Iris Smart Hub, but it supports a wider variety of protocols, has its own IFTTT channel, and offers an even more user-friendly mobile app.

About the Author

As a Contributing Editor for PC Magazine, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, HDTVs, PCs, servers, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for more than 14 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of the Labs technical staff, as well as evaluating and maintaining the integrity of the Labs testing machines and procedures.

Prior to joining Ziff Davis Publishing, John spent six years in retail operations for Federated Stores, Inc. before accepting a purchasing position with Morris Decision Systems, one of New York's first value-added resellers of the original IBM PC. For ... See Full Bio